Saturday, March 29, 2008
It’s a sad, sad story, the lieutenant said. The victim is paralyzed, his sister added.
STAFF REPORT
YOUNGSTOWN — A database of Saturns led police to Hattie L. Gilbert, and her confession to a staged crash led them to Taran D. Helms, who police said shot and robbed a KFC restaurant manager.
Helms, 22, of West Hylda Avenue — his last known address — was arrested at his father’s house on Salt Springs Road around 3:30 p.m. Friday. He is charged with attempted aggravated murder, aggravated robbery and felonious assault, said Lt. Mark Milstead.
Gilbert, 20, of East Judson Avenue, is charged with attempted aggravated murder and aggravated robbery. She was arrested at her home around 9 a.m. Friday after detectives found the Saturn, which she owns, parked behind a nearby vacant house at 701 E. Judson.
Police Chief Jimmy Hughes described Gilbert and Helms as boyfriend and girlfriend. He said at least one family member of Gilbert’s once worked at the KFC on South Avenue.
Helms and Gilbert rehearsed several times how they would rob the restaurant manager, Hughes said. When asked why the victim, who offered no resistance to the robbery, was shot, Hughes said, “I believe it was part of their plan to not have a witness.”
The victim, Joseph Kaluza, 42, of Youngstown, was shot in the neck. His sister said he is paralyzed from the neck down and remains at a Cleveland hospital.
“It’s a sad, sad story,” Milstead said of what happened to Kaluza.
Kaluza was traveling south on South Avenue about 10 a.m. Monday when a light blue Saturn cut him off and caused a crash, said Capt. Kenneth Centorame, chief of detectives.
Kaluza called 911 and then let the driver of the Saturn use his cell phone. A masked shooter then approached and fired, hitting Kaluza in the right side of the head and neck.
The shooter pushed Kaluza’s car a short distance into a driveway on Hilton Avenue and demanded money. He got about $300, the KFC bank deposit.
Based on a description of the Saturn’s driver from Kaluza, police started looking for a “chubby” black woman with a dark complexion. Court records show she is 5 foot 3 inches tall and weighs 225 pounds.
When the shooter fled, meanwhile, he dropped his mask and fur-collared winter coat, Milstead said. DNA should be on the mask, he added.
Milstead said he and Detective Sgts. Ramon Cox and Jason Simon did an Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway database search of 2001 and 2002 light-blue Saturns and came up with roughly 150 in Mahoning County. They selected potential target areas, concentrating on the South Side where they thought the suspects might be found.
“We lucked out,” Milstead said of finding the car so quickly.
During questioning by Detective Sgts. John Kelty, Patrick Kelly and Ron Rodway, Gilbert confessed to being involved in the crash and named Helms as her accomplice, Milstead said. The robbery was pre-planned, the lieutenant said.
Kelty said the rear license plate on the Saturn was removed before the robbery. He said it’s his first experience with a staged crash for a robbery. Such crashes happen all the time for insurance scams, he said.
A surveillance camera aboard a Western Reserve Transit Authority bus traveling down South Avenue just behind the Saturn caught the collision on tape. Detectives reviewed the tape in an effort to find the car and the suspects. Kelty said a lot of people came forward to tell what they saw.
Hughes said he doesn’t think detectives could have narrowed the car’s description down to the year and model without the bus video. He said he’s impressed with detectives’ work, especially Milstead’s.
Over the past two years, court records show Helms, who had addresses in Boardman at the time, was convicted of felony theft and assault, amended from felonious assault. In the assault case, he was given probation in April 2006 by a judge in Mahoning County Court in Boardman and ordered to pay the victim’s medical expenses. In the theft case, he made restitution to the victim and was given probation by a common pleas court judge in March 2006.
Kelty said Helms was recently involved in a domestic situation, and the woman (not Gilbert) obtained a restraining order. The detective said Gilbert has no criminal record.